Quinoa Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies (gluten free)

You probably notice the trend in my food blog that I've inspired and adapted a lot of recipes from William Sonoma's cookbooks. I've found that modifying their recipes have been very successful. All of their recipes have measurements in ounces. Super helpful as I prefer to use my kitchen scale to measure everything.

I've been spending a lot more time this month in the kitchen, baking and coming up with something sweeter for my kids. The reason? Well, Camden's been having stuffy nose (on and off since last summer). I had my doubts that the culprit of his stuffy nose was environmental allergy. I tried deep cleaning the whole house, placed a dust mite mattress cover, and ran an air filter system. Nothing was working. After he had a bloody nose, I decided that it was time for the food elimination diet.

Since the beginning of May, I told Camden that he had to be mindful with what he was eating. No soy (my suspicious). I allowed him to have very little dairy. We've been corn light since he was a baby. So the only thing we had to avoid corn was not eating out. Honestly, avoiding soy is the same as avoiding corn. Unavoidable... unless we are living in a bubble of our own home. And that is exactly what I've been doing when it comes to foods, making them from scratch in my own kitchen.

I started to look for new recipes to test and keep my boys' taste buds excited. So far, I baked applesauce cake, angel food cake, cream filled cookies, and many other sweets, including gummy fruit snacks. My boys had no complaints. They even suggested what I could bake next. I luv that because it makes my life easier to know their cravings.

With that said, I realized that I baked oatmeal cookies many times. They weren't a big hit because my kids didn't care for the oats and the nuts. I changed it up just a little bit by replacing the all-purpose flour with the quinoa flour. I omitted the nuts and the raisins and replaced them with dried cranberries. What did my kids think? They ate them for an afternoon snack and more for nighttime snack. Brek also had them for his school's breakfast. Just luv it when my something sweeter gone bye-bye into their tummies within a day or so.

Quinoa Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
inspired by William Sonoma Collection: Cookies
makes 20 cookies

1 large egg
1/4 cup (2 oz) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (1.7 oz) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz) palm shortening or coconut oil
1/4 cup (2 oz) quinoa flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (2.2 oz) old fashion rolled oats
1/2 cup (2 oz) dried cranberries

1. Line a baking sheet pan with a parchment paper or a nonstick mat. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, and palm shortening. Set aside. NOTE: Because this batter is really thick, I use a hand mixer at a low speed instead of a hand whisk.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, rolled oats, and dried cranberries.
4. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
5. Mix until combine.
6. Using a small scooper, scoop 10 cookie dough onto the prepared baking pan.
7. Freeze the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 350F degree.
9. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 13-15 minutes.
10. Let cool on the baking pan for at least 5 minutes then transfer them to the cooling rack to cool completely.
11. Bake the rest of the cookies or freeze them for future baking. When ready to bake, there is no need to thaw the cookie dough. Bake as directed. The baked cookies can be kept in an air tight container at a room temperature for up to 3 days.

NOTE: These cookies have no gluten, so they are really soft. Handle them with care.

TIP: For a chocolate kick, drizzle melted chocolate over the cookies once they are cooled.

Allergy Info: These quinoa oatmeal cranberry cookies are free from or can be made without dairy, corn, legumes (soy), wheat, nuts, and fish. Be sure to use gluten free rolled oats.